This week was the first Conservative Party Conference
since 'Brexit' and although here at skignz we
are non political, this conference provided the City of
Birmingham with a unique opportunity to do something a little bit different.
Birmingham, the second city as it's labelled, is fast
becoming an emerging centre of excellence for digital technologies.
There are a number of clusters growing across the city
and an aim by all the key stakeholders to provide a 'joined up approach'.
Over the past few months skignz has met with many
of these stakeholders, such as the key Universities, Airport, Chamber of
Commerce, Hospital, Business Birmingham and others with the ultimate ambition
of making Birmingham the first 'skignz city' in the UK if not the
world (currently being challenged by Atlanta in the US).
What is a skignz city?
The definition of a skignz city is very loose,
however it builds on the idea of a SMART city, but using the skignz platform
and digital eco sphere to provide services, information and experiences across
the city.
This ranges from next generation Wayfinding, asset tracking,
leisure activities and raising cultural awareness. SMART cities focus not
on the infrastructure such as driverless cars, IOT, etc.
A skignz city links all of these other initiatives together through a
common platform using the skignz Geo Location based Augmented Reality Platform.
How does this apply to the Conservative Party Conference?
It was felt that in order for all of the stakeholders to
fully understand and experience skignz an event and/or location was required to
demonstrate skignz.
The CPC was chosen and over the past few weeks
the skignz team has been in Birmingham installing the infrastructure
required, for not only all those attending the conference, but all those
in Birmingham and especially those interested in
using skignz to further their individual/organisations agendas with
regards to digital technology.
During the conference people will be able to access
the skignz environment for either navigation from Birmingham New Street Station, to finding the ICC more easily, through to providing interesting
facts and information in and around the ICC.
Birmingham City University and the Greater Birmingham
Chamber are the key supporters, in being the very first Party Conference
to use Augmented Reality, especially as this is not gimmicky or gamified,
it's useful, relevant and interesting.
The future of Augmented Reality is around making the
technology useful and complementary to other technologies, both key
ingredients in building SMART cities.
Birmingham has over the last few days
become the first city… a huge change from its usual status!
Well done Birmingham for having the faith and courage
to push the boundaries of what is possible, by enhancing a political conference
- some would say that's almost impossible!
The BIG question is?
Has the second city just become the UK's first city
with regards to Augmented Reality?
For more information on Birmingham City University please
take look at their website: http://www.bcu.ac.uk
If you want to find out more about skignz, then
please visit our new recently launched website (www.skignz.com)
as well as the usual social media channels
